, a major effect o World War II in the United States
was to concentrate within the national government a great deal
of power and influence -influence that would continue to be
wielded long after the War ended. Additionally, Jeffries (1996)
believes that the economic production demands of the War effort
were beneficial in returning the national economy to something
resembling normalcy, creating job opportunities for those men
found unsuited for war duty and for hundreds of thousands of
women, most of whom had formerly been prohibited from work in
the manufacturing sector by social conventions.
Foner (1998) and Martin and Roberts (1989) have both
commented on the effect of World War II employment shifts on
women in the United States. These historians believe that the
war experience broadened many women's aspiration and made them
ore self-reliant. Women workers forced unions such as the
United Auto Workers to confront issues such as equal pay for
equal work, maternity leaves, and child care facilities for
working mothers. Many women were determined to remain in the
work force after the War ended, and it can be argued that the
traditional nuclear family typical of the U.S. -with an
employed father, a domestically centered mother, and children
red for by the mother -began to change in this period of
...